A PC card provides a wireless LAN capability, a PHS communication capability, a portable telephone communication capability, a memory capability and so forth, and can be plugged into an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer to make use of these capabilities.
In order to add multiple capabilities to an information processing apparatus, a plurality of PC cards have to be plugged into the information processing apparatus, and therefore a plurality of slots must be available for connection. As conventional personal computers have been downsized, in many models, particularly laptop personal computers, there is only one slot for a PC card to enable a functional extension.
On the other hand, the technique is disclosed that a plurality of PC cards are linked in series so that multiple capabilities can be added to a personal computer only by the use of a single slot (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Published Application No. Hei 2000-75974, paragraph “0027”, FIG. 3).
However, in the case where a plurality of PC cards are simply connected to each other, they can be easily come off from each other and therefore it is not practical. In addition, such a PC card has a special structure for the serial connection and a proprietary controller inside thereof and therefore conventional cards cannot be used.
Taking into consideration the above shortcomings, it is an object of the present invention to provide a PC card which can be used to add multiple capabilities to an information processing apparatus in cooperation with a conventional card only by the use of a single card slot, and a method of controlling this PC card.